Each academic course meets on two days each week: on Monday and Thursday, or on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday is reserved for formation. Each Wednesday, all classes except Fourth Theology participate in three distinct sessions: Two of these are in the morning, and concentrate on a particular pillar of formation, with a focus on human formation in the early years of the seminary curriculum, which shifts to a focus on pastoral formation in the later years, in accord with the Program for Priestly Formation, no. 70-73. All students in First Theology are required to attend the intellectual formation conferences on critical reading in their first semester of study. Each Wednesday afternoon, First, Second, and Third Theologians engage in an apostolic or pastoral work off-campus; this part of the formation day helps students to apply what they are learning in the classroom to concrete pastoral work. Pre-Theologians normally have college classes to attend at this time.

The formation goal for the intellectual formation conferences on critical reading is to promote a love for learning outside the context of a graded course. By selecting texts which are enriching, practical, and thought provoking, students come to integrate study as a means of personal enrichment, as well as a vehicle for prayer. Students are taught how to engage with a text, as opposed to simply distilling data from it. The hope is that this intellectual exercise will inform prayer, influence homilies, and impart a desire for life-long learning.

Pastoral Sensitivity and Awareness—“Stephen Ministries”, which is listed as a formation course for Second and Third Theology students, is a nationally recognized program in bereavement ministry and grief counseling. This widely lauded program focuses on helping the seminarian develop personal psychological and emotional integrity, as well as an understanding of the requirements and effective methods of ministering to those who have experienced a great crisis or loss in their lives.

Year of Study

Pillars of Formation

Time

Pre Theology I

(Fall) Conference One: Intellectual Formation—Review of the PPF (weeks 2-7) followed by Research Methodology—(weeks 8-14)